Shaking Heart
by rievene
Summary: One hundred bits and pieces; some broken, some chipped, some simply loving - and yet, all one hundred, meant to commit to a single, everlasting memory.
1. Eternity

**Hey there. I know I've already written up a 20 Theme Challenge before, but I looked back at the story and to be 100% honest, I didn't like it. At all. And so I've started a new chain of oneshots; I've never been able to stick to a certain length when it came to these, so some of them will be really short drabbles, while some will be ridiculously long.**

**I've tried to write a few of these in order, but some of the prompts were just too tempting. So instead of writing up prompt #1: "Introduction", I chose this.**

**I should probably add that this was written for rainbowserenity, who is a verydedicated writer/hoperai fan on tumblr. If you haven't seen her around or read any of her stuff yet, I really suggest that you leave this page and just go and look at her stuff. Now.**

**Anyways, hope you enjoy. Have a handful of angst as a first shot.**

* * *

(7)** Eternity, set in Lightning Returns**

* * *

Five hundred years. Five hundred years, and thirteen days to speak with Lightning over wireless communication.

Five hundred years, he'd been waiting for her to wake from her prolonged sleep in crystal stasis.

Those painfully, painfully lonely five hundred years had been worth the wait.

Even if he'd have to lose her all over again.

* * *

There had been so much blood shed that night, it made Hope sick. The screams and echoes resonated throughout his head even now, despite the fact that the war had passed. The monsters had disappeared. There was no more screaming, no more cries to be heard throughout the new world. The once ruling forces in Luxerion had been reduced to nothingness in order to atone for their crimes, and those who had been spared sought peace in hiding, well out of sight to avoid getting caught.

Humanity had survived, after all.

Right as the citizens of Nova Chrysalia had successfully been transported to the new world—its new name still yet to be determined—they had either taken rest in local shelters set up by the Academy, which had been working undercover and out of the government's way for the past four centuries. Only as the war struck had Hope, who had successfully managed to retain his position as Director for five hundred years, called upon what remained of the Academy (which was actually quite a lot) to take action.

Somehow, the Academy had also managed to keep Fang and Vanille's crystals within their reach, stored safely wherever the members had deemed their positions out of harm's way. Right as Lightning had successfully completed her duty as "Savior", as she'd stated before, Hope had received word that Fang and Vanille had been more or less released from their crystal slumber. They were back.

Needless to say, he was more than excited to see them again. Centuries of work and going in hiding had paid off, and he couldn't wait to greet the two Pulsians, up and in action once more.

But most of all, he couldn't wait to see Lightning.

"We've landed, Director," a woman dressed in an Academy uniform said, and Hope immediately took a step forward, reaching for the lock by the helicopter door (it seemed to be a bit too large and bulky to be called a "door") as he did so.

As soon as he'd adjusted to the sudden light, Hope's eyes immediately widened at the scenery. It was completely different from that of Nova Chrysalia, back in Luxerion. There were no signs of civilization, the whole landscape full of lush wildlife and plants and animals he'd never even seen before. It was so different, yet…it felt familiar.

Similar to that of Gran Pulse.

He'd barely had time to fully take in the fresh environment, however, as the sound of boots crunching on dirt and scraping across the newly spread terrain drew near. He had some difficulty pulling his head from the view, but he managed.

And as soon as he did, he was glad to admit it was even more difficult keeping his eyes off the new sight before him.

Hope's eyes immediately flashed as they came to rest upon the familiar pink curls, the pale skin, the blue eyes—the woman was clad in heavy stygian armor, a single sword strapped to her side, but he could still recognize her.

It was Lightning.

Though he'd expected her to break the newly made eye contact any time now and simply look off to the side, commenting on the view—she didn't. In fact, her eyes seemed to flash in a similar manner as they briefly flickered from Hope's shoes all the way to his silver, slightly longer hair.

The silent exchange lasted no more than a second, but it seemed like forever before Lightning spoke.

"…Hope," she said.

He blinked, and immediately cleared his throat. "L…Lightning," he said, and he cringed, because it wasn't too hard to tell that his response hadn't been near equally as smooth as her starter. Nevertheless, he was amazed to see something twitch by the side of her mouth—a smile?

As she drew nearer, Hope found it nearly impossible to keep his eyes away. Sure, talking via wireless communication with Lightning had been exciting, considering that he hadn't seen her for a little over five hundred years, but seeing her now, face-to-face…that was different.

Blue eyes gradually came within walking distance, and Hope barely had the time to occupy himself with the fact that he was taller than Lightning (_finally_) before she took one last look at him and turned, next to Hope as she looked out at the scenery. He diverted his gaze over, and they found themselves basking in the view of the new world.

"…You did it," Hope finally said, and he turned to see Lightning raise an eyebrow in question. "You saved the world, I mean. You did it, Light."

Lightning had swiveled to her left to greet Hope's eyes once more, and her expression was unreadable. He thought, for a split second, that he might have said something wrong, but relief kicked in once a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

"Thanks," she said.

Hope smiled back. "Have Fang and Vanille been released yet?" she asked. Hope nodded, and she let out a small breath of relief, which was a little odd. Never in the past thirteen days had she ever let him hear her say anything like that; adding onto that, her speech seemed a bit more casual than before. The "Mr. Hope Estheim" phase had passed, thankfully, but the sudden change in speech made him a little uneasy. Nevertheless, he guessed it was most likely due to the fact that she could finally let go and relax now. It was over. Her job was done.

Unfortunately, he hadn't fully realized the consequences of that ending.

Lightning simply turned to take another look at the wildlife, listening to the quiet breeze between them as she stared off into the light. The time was unknown, but Hope suspected it had been sometime between late morning and the early afternoon. Time hadn't passed for years. Centuries, in fact.

As she looked back at Hope, he realized—with an odd little jolt—that something was wrong. He frowned. Lightning's expression was near incomprehensible, and they stood still for a moment, matching each other's gazes—

—and suddenly Lightning was falling, falling and plummeting towards the new earth, making it just in time as Hope caught her, too shocked and stunned to say anything. In a few seconds he regained his breath, and he frantically turned Lightning around so her back rested against his arm.

"Lightning! Wh—"

"My time is up," she said, and Hope's stomach sunk as he heard the weariness in her voice. "Light—?" he began, but Lightning simply shook her head, telling him to wait before she began. She took a deep breath, a little shaky, and stared off into the distance, gaze unlike any expression that Hope had seen her wear before.

"I've completed my focus," she said. Hope blinked, heartbeat speeding up at an alarming pace as he registered the word "focus".

"What? Light, you were a l'Cie? But—"

"No," Lightning said sharply, and looked as if she'd realized how punitive she'd sounded. She took a deep breath. "I mean my duty. It was my mission to…to guide the new souls, humanity…" She took another deep breath, and Hope thought she might have suddenly stopped, but she continued. "…into the new world."

"What?" Hope said, even more frantic now. "But…but it was just your mission. Once this was all over, you would have been able to rest, to live in the new world. Everything," he said, motioning to the new landscape, "this is all because of you!"

Lightning cracked a small smile, and Hope's heart felt like it was shattering into pieces. It was a kind smile, one he'd received all those years ago, back when he was fourteen—but it was also a broken smile, one that both of them knew to be one that meant, _I'm sorry_.

Hope had seen that smile before. The same woman who'd given him that smile had died, only when he was an adolescent, without anyone to guide him through the world otherwise.

"But Lightning…" Hope's voice cracked. "You can't…you can't just _leave_." He could hear the desperation in his voice, and the lump already starting to form in his throat as he spoke.

Despite his plea, Lightning let out a shaky breath. "Bhunivelze…has lent me…all his powers. It's time for me to…give them back."

"But I don't understand." Hope's eyes were starting to sting, and he hated it. No matter what was happening, even if he didn't understand, he was supposed to be strong for Lightning. He couldn't be the one to cry. He'd gone through so many incidents, gone through so much for the past five _centuries_. He couldn't cry now.

He had to be strong, for her.

"In exchange for his powers, I promised…" Lightning rasped, and she winced at the gradually decreasing supply of air, causing Hope to jolt and lean in worry, "…I promised him whatever he needed, whatever it was for me to be able to save…save Serah."

"But I couldn't. I was able to save everyone, but…I couldn't. There's no way to revive someone from the dead, Hope." Lightning looked up, and he could see how shattered, how broken the expression behind her eyes was. "I should have known that."

"But you gave up your life," Hope said, starting to realize. Lightning nodded, closing her eyes for a minute before continuing.

"It wasn't a direct promise, but…I knew that in exchange for Bhunivelze's powers, I wouldn't…I wouldn't be able to see any of this…after thirteen days," Lightning said, gesturing to the copious amounts of life surrounding them. She let out a small chuckle, leaning back into Hope's arms as she did so. "But I guess…Snow got his wish, didn't he?"

Hope didn't say anything. Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut, willing the stinging pain behind his lids to go away, to fade or to just somehow _disappear_ before the wetness would spread to his cheeks, making the tears visible for Lightning to see. Snow had ended up surrendering, agreeing to help Lightning—but in the end, there had been no real way to save him. His will had come back, the hero had returned—but he had been too late, becoming a C'ieth and choosing to let the crumbling, massive building in Yasnaan overtake his new form before he had the chance to hurt anyone, or worse—force Lightning to kill him.

_Don't worry, sis,_ he'd said, before the transformation had taken place. _I'll be able to see Serah after this. I'm sorry that your plan didn't work out for you._

Only now had Hope realized what that last bit had meant.

"Why?" he said, holding Lightning tighter as he spoke. "_Why?_" His voice broke, and it was only a matter of time before the tears had started to roll down his cheeks.

Why?

Why did it have to end this way? Why did Lightning, who had worked relentlessly to save the world after being locked in a crystal embrace for so long—why did she, who had barely even gotten enough time to enjoy the new world she had worked so hard for, have to leave?

Why?

"I'm sorry, Hope," Lightning breathed, and he felt something graze by his cheek. He opened his eyes, and realized that Lightning's hand was cupping his cheek.

He leaned into her touch, determined in spite of his broken state to get all he could of her before she would leave.

"Hope…" she began, and winced again, hand immediately flying to her chest; right where Bhunivelze's mark was. It was starting to glow, but Hope paid it no mind as Lightning struggled to reclaim her breath once more.

"Lightning—" Hope began, but she simply shook her head, and he fell silent.

"Can you do me a favor?" she whispered, and extended a hand, as though she were reaching for the sky. "It's selfish of me to ask," she said, "and you don't have to do it, if it's too painful for you."

Hope shook his head rapidly, like the thought of not accepting her final request was the last thing he'd ever think of. "I'll do anything," he said, taking her hand and squeezing it. "I'll do anything. What do you need?" He was aware of the tears streaming down his face, but he simply gripped her hand even tighter.

"Don't…forget me," Lightning said. "Don't forget me, Hope…please." On the last note, her voice wavered, and Hope blinked in surprise as he saw a tear roll down the side of her face.

"I—" Hope began, and let out a watery chuckle. "I could never forget you, Light. Even if I wanted to—I could never. Not in a million years." Bhunivelze's mark was glowing brighter now, but Lightning simply smiled. "Thank you," she said, tone so quiet it seemed as though she were mouthing the words.

The mark suddenly burst into a frenzy of light, nearly blinding Hope, but he didn't let go of Lightning. He held her tight, keeping her intact until he felt something start to dissolve under his fingers.

He watched as Lightning slowly faded away, remnants of the woman he had spent five centuries waiting for dissipate and scatter into nothingness.

He was broken.

He let the tears fall without restraint this time—heavy sobs wracked his tall frame, and there was nothing stopping him, nothing holding him back from cursing whoever had done this to Lightning, whoever had done this to _him_—there was nothing stopping him from crying in frustration, wondering why it had ended like this, why it had to be this way.

But even after time had slowly passed, and as he sat in front of the slowly dying sunset, he found himself letting loose a single last tear, speaking a promise he would never break in a million years.

"…I'll never forget you, Light."


	2. A Moment in Time

**This fic was written for brandylog, another user on tumblr who drew this **(replace the commas with periods):

brandylog , tumblr , com/post/52914594840/its-an-oracle-drive-it-record s-the-future-yup

**Al****though it's not necessary to understand the story without the art, **I really do suggest taking a look at it before reading this. It's very cute. ^^

* * *

(65) **A Moment in Time, set**** in Lightning Returns**

* * *

Though Lightning certainly had been aware of the fact that oracle drives still existed, her knowledge of the peculiar devices proved meager as she blinked, momentarily confused by the sudden addition to Hope's vocabulary as she weaved her way through Nova Chrysalia—

—which was how she had somehow ended up at the Ark with Hope as he carried on his explanation of the oracle drive, how it worked, and what it could do.

"So you're telling me that this thing can record the future?" she said, brow furrowed in what seemed to be a hint of mild skepticism.

"Yes," Hope said, "or so we've heard. In ancient times, the seeress of Paddra would transfer her visions of the future into the oracle drive so that they would be preserved for future generations to observe—or put to use, if it was possible."

"And those images are still in there?" Lightning asked.

Hope nodded. "Whenever the images are displayed, a projection is initiated, usually across the sky or some other empty surface for us to be able to observe the projection. If there's some sort of interference, though," and he sighed, "the image will become fuzzy or distorted, so it's hard to specify or properly identify the image once it does."

Hope looked up, eyes resting upon Lightning's, and his gaze softened. "It's happened a lot of times, but I remember getting my hands on a projection of you in Valhalla, back before Chaos spread—a paradox caused a distortion in the image, but we managed to have it resolved it as soon as possible."

"…Maybe you could show me how this oracle drive works," Lightning said, trying to avoid Hope's gaze as she spoke. Lately he'd been eyeing her more so than usual, and she wasn't very sure what to think of it. The expression behind Hope's eyes made her feel somewhat uneasy, though not necessarily in a bad way.

Hope nodded, and pushed a button on the oracle drive. Immediately the device sprang to life, glowing and slowly starting to whirr as it stirred up a projection against the sky. As the image became thicker and more solid, however, it immediately began to fuzz, background noise and static drowning out any other sounds from the projection.

"Oh, damn." Hope immediately turned to lift the oracle drive from its position, hoping to find some hint from the cause of the interference. "I'm sorry, Light. Lately the oracle drives have been slowing down—five hundred years have passed, and they haven't exactly been kept in the best conditions so far."

"It's fine," Lightning said. "I don't have much time, so maybe you'll be able to show me the next—"

She froze.

_Did I just…see what I think I saw?_

"Light?" Hope said, back still turned against the projection as he struggled to fix the glowing, green ball, but Lightning paid no heed to the call as her eyes remained fixated upon the projection.

What she'd initially assumed to have been a battle scene, or a chunk of footage of some sort of monster wreaking havoc upon a city, had suddenly flickered numerous times—only to be replaced by a bit of cleaner footage (albeit no longer than a couple seconds) of a certain silver-haired man, locking arms with a woman slightly shorter than him as they slowly made their way down an aisle.

The alarming part, however, was how painfully familiar the woman looked, and Lightning had no more than a second to take in the image as cobalt irises flickered, pink curls tumbling down the side of the woman's neck and casting shadows over the white dre—

"Light?" Hope asked, and this time he turned around to check if she was still there. Sure enough, she was, but the sudden expression of both shock and something else that had mingled with her pale features brought forth the next words that escaped his lips.

"What happened? Are you oka—" he began, but was abruptly cut off as Lightning suddenly blinked and shook her head, interrupting him in the process. "I…I'm going to head off now," she said. And with that, she turned and bolted for the exit.

"You're leaving? But I just fixed the oracle drive!" Hope called, but by the time he was done, Lightning was already gone.

He sighed. "…So much for a thorough demonstration."


	3. Health and Healing

**AU; short drabble.**

* * *

(54)** Health and Healing**

* * *

Lightning permitted herself to rest peacefully that night—an opportunity she'd gladly accepted, given her constantly busy schedule that had lasted a whole week without proper sleep.

As she awoke, the gentle stroking of her bare back stirred her to her senses. She turned her head, propping the rest of it against her arms. Hope was already smiling, arm supporting the weight of his head as he lay on his back, hand moving against Lightning's back as she slowly blinked. She was obviously still in a daze, he could tell, but he simply leaned in to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. "Good morning," he murmured.

"Mm," she responded, and proceeded to scoot into Hope's bare chest, the tip of her nose just grazing his skin as she did so.

"You're warm," she said, voice slightly muffled, and Hope smiled in response. His hand gently moved back up, fingers grazing her shoulders—they lay together in silence before Hope suddenly frowned, stopping the once flowing movement of his hands as he did so.

Lightning must have sensed his apprehension, because as soon as his fingers left her skin, she opened her eyes. "What's wrong?" she said.

"…You have another scar here," Hope said, and Lightning rolled her eyes. "It's nothing," she replied.

"Nothing? Light, I thought I told you to take better care of yourself after training. Did you treat the wound? When did it happen?"

Lightning paused, deciding to take action before Hope would proceed any further with the questions. "I put some isopropyl on it. One of the squad members tried to use a healing manadrive, but we didn't have much left for the mission and I talked him out of it."

Hope sighed in exasperation, and Lightning looked up. "Look, I already treated the wound. It wasn't that deep to begin with, so don't worry." She raised a hand to sweep his bangs from his forehead, seeing the slowly diminishing concern and love in his eyes. "I'm fine, Hope."

He didn't say anything, and she frowned for a moment, wondering if she really had worried him that much—only to have a bundle of platinum locks suddenly dive into her collarbone, breath against her chest as Lightning held him, blinking in momentary bemusement as he did so. "Hope…?"

He was silent, but the reticence was broken as he leaned over and kissed the wound on her shoulder, sending a slight shiver down her back as he moved over to the bruise on her forearm, then to the now closing cut on her neck.

"What are you doing?" she breathed, and he paused for a moment, allowing Lightning to feel his smile against her skin as his lips came to a rest against her collarbone. "Healing your wounds," he said, and after a few more, planted a final kiss on the inside of her wrist, right where Lightning vaguely remembered having been cut in the midst of a battle against a King Behemoth.

"My mother used to do that whenever I got little nicks or scrapes on my hands as a kid," Hope said, pulling Lightning into an embrace. "I just hope it works for you, too."

Lightning snorted. "If it did, my scars would have disappeared completely after what happened last night."

A smile tugged at Hope's lips. "…Maybe," he said. "But you never know."


End file.
